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Live-Action One Piece Cast to Help Toss 1st Pitch at World Baseball Classic

The live-action One Piece series announced on February 24 that the members of the Straw Hat Pirates will appear during the World Baseball Classic's Japan vs. Chinese Taipei game on March 6. Iñaki Godoy (Monkey D. Luffy), Emily Rudd (Nami), Mackenyu (Roronoa Zoro), Jacob Gibson (Usopp), and Taz Skylar (Sanji) will take part in the game's first pitch. The game will start at the Tokyo Dome at 6:00 p.m.

The World Baseball Softball Confederation holds the World Baseball Classic tournament every four years. The 2026 tournament sees 20 teams facing off in Japan, the United States, and Puerto Rico between March 5 and 17. Japan's national team, oft called Samurai Japan, has won three WBC tournaments in 2006, 2009, and 2023. The Dominican Republic and United States have each won one tournament in 2013 and 2017 respectively.

The live-action One Piece series debuted exclusively on Netflix in August 2023. The first season had eight episodes, as opposed to 10 episodes as originally reported. The series won awards for "Outstanding Original Song for a Children's or Young Teen Program" and "Outstanding Stunt Coordination for a Live Program" at The 3rd Annual Children's & Family Emmy Awards. The second season is set to premier on Netflix on March 10.

Tomorrow Studios, a partnership between producer Marty Adelstein (Prison Break, Teen Wolf) and ITV Studios, produced the first live-action season. Becky Clements served as an executive producer with Maeda.

Sources: One Piece's X/Twitter account via Anime! Anime!